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Baseball strikes out politics

The nation's warring politicians are likely to hold fire for the next few days as the public's attention turns once again to baseball and a series of exhibition games featuring the Japanese Professional Baseball champions Daiei Hawks.

The tour, sponsored by the People First Party (PFP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), among others, includes two games against Taiwan's national team and one against the Sinon Bulls.

Representatives of the sponsors, including PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) and KMT Legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), will each pitch a "first ball" in the first game today in Kaohsiung.

In September, opposition legislators accused the Democratic Progressive Party of trying to pressure the Amateur Baseball Association, which is helping organize the tour, to allow President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to throw the first pitch, an accusation the Presidential Office denied.

Soong, Wang, Chen, KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) have been invited by association to watch the games in VIP boxes, but all have chosen to sit in regular seats.

No matter where Chen sits, he is expected to bring the "A-bian curse," a phenomenon in which the home side never wins when he is present. In the five most recent games he has attended, the home side lost four times. The other game ended in a tie.

When asked about the curse yesterday, Chen laughed and said, "It is no big deal that there are jokes about the `A-bian curse,' but a game depends really on each side's ability rather than the curse. Some Taiwanese fans brought A-bian dolls to watch the Taiwan-Japan game in the 2003 Asian Baseball Championship, but still Taiwan did not win the game."

The Asian Baseball Championship, held in Japan, was held to decide who from the region would compete in next year's Olympic Games. Despite losing to Japan, Taiwan made it to the Olympics after beating China and South Korea.

The Hawks, led by former Yomiuri Giants slugger and Taiwanese national Sadaharu Oh (王貞治), will play the Taiwanese national team at 6:30pm tonight and 1pm tomorrow afternoon in Kaohsiung Chengching Lake Baseball Park. They will play the Sinon Bulls at 1pm on Sunday at Tienmu Baseball Park.

Oh was raised in Japan and speaks no Chinese. Nevertheless, he has kept his Taiwanese passport and takes great interest in the country's fortunes.
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